What kind of morality does the Left offer? part 1

“On the Barricades” s05e25

In this week’s release of “On the Barricades,” hosts Boyan Stanislavski and Maria Cernat take up the question of morality in politics. Over the last decades the Left has developed a tendency to transform itself from a political entity to a moral high ground, while subjugating political categories to moral categories. As a result we have a political culture of “good” leftists abstracting and then distancing themselves from parts of society it determines to be “bad”-- the conservatives or “right wing populists” – to whom they toss insulting imperatives to no communicative effect, whilst posturing as prophets in a sectarian bubble.

We historically assess this trend in its material conditions in the next episode – but the question remains of how do we address and think about morality as leftists and as socialists? How do we understand power and corruption, in relation to morality? Finally, what tools do we have that can enable us to leave the sect and re-enter the political and social process around us, as is necessary for genuine social transformation and struggle?

Boyan quotes Leon’s Trotsky’s “Their Morals and Ours,” which can be found in English here:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/morals/morals.htm